Graphic recording instrument.



R. 0.. LANPHI ER.

GRAPHIC RECORDING INSTRUMENT;

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, 1910. 992 010. Pa en edm y 9, 1911.

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W I??? M E mm R. c. LANPHIBR. GRAPHIC RECORDING INSTRUMENT. APPLICATION ,IILBD NOV. 9, 1910.

992,010. Patented May 9, 1911.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

R. c. LA NPHIER. GRAPHIC RECORDING INSTRUMENT.

' APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, 1910. 992N109 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Patented. May-9, 1-911.

R. G. LANPHIER. GRAPHIC RECORDING INSTRUMENT. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 9, 1910.

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Patented May 9, 1911.

UNITED STATES-PATENT OFFICE.

' ROBERT C. LANPHIER, OF SIERINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO SANG-AMO-ELEGTRIC COMPANY, OF SPRINGFIELD,'ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 9, 1911.

Application filed November 9, 1910. Serial No. 591,458.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it knownthat I, ROBERT C. LANPHIER, a citizen of theUnited States, residing at Springfield, inthe county of Sangamon and State of Illinois, have invented certain-new and useful Improvements in Gra hic Recording Instruments of which the ollowing is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to graphic recording instruments in which variations in pressure or quantity of force are recorded by means of a recording pen or pencil which traces a line on a paper roll or chart driven by clockwork in such a way that the line traced upon the chart will show the variations in the pressure or quantity of force which lates to a graphic recording instrument employing two motor elements which may be operated together or independently, each upon its own shaft, the said shafts each carrying an arm connected with each other bysuitable link-Work from which the recording pen is suspended, which permits a combination of the two motor or actuating elements in such away that, without change in the arrangement or construction of the motor elements, they may be used upon various systems, such as polyphase systems, single phase alternating systems, 'or twowire or three-wire direct current systems. i

More particularly still, it relates to a meter of the above type in which the two motor elements being arranged upon sub-.

- stant-ially the same horizontal plane. with their shafts provided with substantially horizontally extendin arms connected by a link-work from which the pen is suspended, a very rigid constructlon for the indicating arms and link-workis provided and an accurate suspension. of the pen is secured.- p Y Another object of my invention is to provide a clock or watch dial, with, of'cours'e,

graphic recording instruments.

suitable hands, connected with the ordinary driving clockwork mechanism used in such machines for driving the paper roll in order to permit the read checking of the accuracy of the clock drive, which, without such clockwork arranged to record time as well as to drive the recording roll, necessitated observation and comparison of the paper chart in order to determine whether the driving clockwork mechanism was running correctly.

.Another object of my invention is to pro 7 vide a new and improved pen for such In electric recording instruments the relatively low torque of the motor element has made it diflicult to guard against the friction of the pen upon the chart across which the pen.

passes and which itself moves under the pen. One way in which this difliculty has been overcome heretofore has been by utilizing a relay principle having an auxiliary source of. power for'operating the pen itself, the instrument proper acting only as a relay to operate the auxiliary power. It is one of the objects of my invention, therefore, to provide a new and improved recording pen in which, by means of .a suitably disposed roller carried near the point of the pen and resting upon the surface of the paper, the pen is held out of direct contact with the hard surface of the paper, but sufficiently close thereto for the fiber of the paper to draw the ink from the point of the pen.

Other objects of my invention consist in detail improvements in graphic recording instruments of the type above described and hereinafter pointed out.

I attain these ob]ects as lllustrated in the drawings and as hereinafter described.

What I regard as new is set forth in the claims. 1 s

In the drawings,Figure 1 is a front elevation with the casing in section; Fig. 2 is a side elevation with the casing in section; Fig. 3 is a top or plan view taken in section on line 3-3 of Fig. 3; Fig. 4 is a very much enlarged detail, being a view ofthe recording pen and a portion of the-roller upon which it acts; Fig 5 is a modification, being a view of the pen, showing a s'ingleroller instead. of two; Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail, being a vertical section of the pen shown in Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is an enlarged detail, beinga with the motor shaft and showing the method of connection of the hanger therewith.

Referring to the drawings,-8 indicates the main casing, in which is suitabl mount-, ed a clock mechanism 9 which may e of any well-known character and description and operates in the usual manner and is therefore not shown 1n order not to confuse the row in Fig. 2. The roller 13 is journaled in a skilled in the art. Each of these motor elea suitable framework, as 19.

20 indicates a roll of aper which is carried upon asuitable spindle, as 21, journaled in the framework 19. This paper is of the usual kind and is marked into lon itudinal and transverse divisions which indicate, respectively, the degrees of variations of the instrumentand the hours and port-ions of hours of travel of the paper. The aper 20 is, near each side margin, provided with a series of perforations '22 spaced equal distances a art, whichare engaged by pins23 near eac end of the roller 13 spaced also equal distances apart and at the same distance apart as the perforations in the paper roll. These perforations and pins are old fllllld well known and serve to positivel carry t e hereinafter described.

24- -25 indicate motor elements, which are suitably secured in'the frame 8 and are preferably located in the same horizontal plane. These motor elements may be of any wellknown type adapted to be operated by the passage therethrough of an electric current or currents, but are preferably of the mer .cury motor type well known and understood in the art an operating in the well-known way. As the may be of any well-known type, it is believed that it is unnecessary to s ow and describe the armatures and driving fields and'electric connections in detail, as the o eration of each will bereadily understoo without such description, by those ments is provided with a shaft 2627, each of which is connected with a s iral spring 2829, against the tension of w ich the motor element operates in the well-known manner.

above that the shafts do not rotate continupaper off the roll in front of t e pen ously, but that they oscillate back and forth under the impulse of the electric currents and against the tension of the spring in the well-known manner so that the amount of their swing at any time is dependent upon the current passing through the motor element.

3031 indicate arms, which, as is best shownin Fig. 7, are preferably formed of thin strips of aluminum bent into a tube triangular in cross-section in order to secure lightness and the re uisite stiffness. These arms 30-31 are rigid y secured to the shafts 2627, respectively, in any suitable manner, as, for instance, by being fixed in collars 32 carried on said shafts.

' 33 indicate counter Weights, which are adjustably mounted upon the rods 34 also secured in the collars 32.

The arms 3031 are so adjusted as to lie parallel to each other with their forward ends projecting out a suitable distance beyond thefront of the roller 13 and beyond the surface of the paper 20 carried thereby. Of course it will be obvious that as the shafts oscillate the-arms are carried with them so that their ends oscillate back and forth in corresponding arcs of circles in front of the roller 13. The arms are prefer- I ably made of considerable length-that is to say, as long as is consistent with proper rigidity and reasonable size of the structurein order that their forward ends may trace as flat an are as is convenient.

35 -36 indicate collars, which are secured, respectively, to the forward ends of the arms 30-31.

37-38 indicate bearing spindles, which are rigidly mounted, respectively, in the collars 3536 and extend vertically upward and downward therefrom.

39 indicates a cross-bar,which carries at each end stirrups 4041 depending downward therefrom, and which are provided with suitable bearings, as 42, which revolu bly engage the ends of the spindles 37-38, whereby, as the arms 30-31 swing from side to side, the cross-bar 39 is always parallel to the surface of the a er.

43 indicates a or ed hanger, which is swingingl suspended from struck-up portions 44 0 the cross-bar 39 by having the upper ends of the forks journaled in said struc up portions 44;. v The hanger extends downward in front of the roller 13 and carries at its lower end a pointer 45 and recording pen 46.

Thepen, as a whole, may be of any wellknown and approved form, but is preferably of the form best shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6. Beferringto those figures, it will be seenthat the pen 46 is made up of a U-shaped portion having. two arms 47 and of an upright portion 48. The upright portion 48 opens into thebottom of the U-shaped portion,

' is bent inward at 48 toward the surface of the paper. 50 indicates a marking stylus, which projects out of the free end of the capillary tube 49 and is adapted to transfer the ink drawn upward by capillary action through the tube 49 to the surface of the paper. Referring particularly to Fig. 4, 51

indicates'a two-armed bracket which is carried by the upper end of the tube 48. 52 indicates anti-friction rollers, which are mounted in the ends of the forked bracket 51 and are adaptedto rest upon and bear against the surface of the paper, their position with reference to the rest of the pen be ing so adjusted that as they bear upon the paper under the swing of the hanger they hold the point of the stylus out of direct contact with the surface of the paper but close enough to permit the fibrous surface of the paper to draw the ink from the stylus so asto trace the line upon the paper. By this means the friction between the end of the stylus and the surface of the paper is prevented, thereby permitting the instrument to operate at very low torque and therefore under very low loads.

53 indicates binding screws of suitable character, by means of which the lead wires, as 54, may be suitably connected with the 7 motor elements, which may obviously be e the recording pen, indicating both the degree,

connected either in series with each other or upon different circuit leads, as upon polyp ase or single phase alternating systems, or three-wire D. 0. systems, or they may be connected in any desired Way relatively to each other to suit the demands of the instrument. In any case it will be obvious that operating upon different shafts which are connected by the projecting arms and link mechanism above described, their total effect,

or total effect relative to each other, will be indicated and recorded by the'recording pen.

The operation of the machine will be readily understood from the above description. Ihe roller 13 being driven by the clockwork 1n the casing 9, will unroll the paper 20 on the spindle 31 in the direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1 in front of the recording pen. Any variations in the. current or currents passing through the motor elements, or through either of them if only one is used, will be, of course, traced upon the paper by of variation at any time" and the time at which such variation occurred. By means of the dial driven by the same clockwork, it

- will be easy at any time by comparing the said clock with the standard time to ascertam whether the mechanism is'running correotly, so that the several variations are recorded as occurring at the time at which they actually did occur.

That which I claim as my invention, and I desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is,-

,1. In combination, a pair of independently operable motor elements, each having its 'oWn shaft, an arm projecting from'the shaft of each motor element, a link connection between said arms, and a recording pen carried by said link connection.

2. In combination, a pair of independently operable elect-ricmotor elements, each having its own shaft, an arm projecting from the shaft of each motor element, a link connection between said arms, and a recording .pen suspended from said link connection.

3. In combination, a pair of motor ele ments adapted to be independently operated by electric currents conveyed thereto and,

having each a shaft, an arm projecting from the shaft of each motor element, a link con nectionbetween said arms, anda recording pen suspended from said link connection.

4. In combinatlon, a p 11? of electricity motor meters arranged in t e same horizontal plane and adapted to be operated by elec-.

t-ric currents conveyed thereto and each having its own independent shaft, a horizontal arm projecting from the shaft of each motor meter, a link connection between the ends of said arms, ahanger suspended from said link connection, and a recording pen carried by said hanger. i

5. In combination, a pair of independently-operable motor elements adapted to be operated either separately or simultaneously and each having its own shaft, an arm pro jecting from the shaft of each motor ele- 7. In combination, a, pair of independently-operable electricity motor meters each having an element rotatable through a limited arc and adapted to. be moved by a current conveyed thereto, said motor elements being adapted to be operated either separately of each other or simultaneously and arranged 'on" the same horizontal plane, a shaft connected with the rotatable element of each of said motor'metrs', a horizontal arm projecting from. each of said shafts, a link connection between the ends of said arms, a hanger suspended from said link I a acacia connection, and a recording pencarried by instruments having a movable record-strip said hanger. consisting of an lnk receptacle, a stylus 8. A marking-pen for graphic recording adapted to take ink from said ink receptacle,

instruments having a movable record-strip, and a roller bearing carried near said stylus l5 consisting of an ink receptacle, a stylus and adapted to bear upon the surface of said adapted to take ink from said ink receptarecord-strip and hold the point of said stylus cle and a roller bearing adapted to bear out of close contact therewith.

upon said record-strip and hold the point of ROBERT C. LANPHIER. said stylus out of frictional contact there- Witnesses: 10 with, I GRACE L. HOOPER,

9. A marking-pen for graphic recording CHAS. G. LANPHIER. 

